Bodmin care home rated inadequate

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated St Petroc's Care Home inadequate and placed it in special measures to protect people following an inspection in September.

St Petroc's Care Home, run by Stonehaven (Healthcare) Ltd, is a care home providing personal care to up to 30 people. The service also provides residential care to older people who may have a physical disability.

The inspection was prompted in part due to an incident following which a person using the service died. The information shared with CQC about the incident indicated potential concerns about how they were managing the risks associated with unplanned restraint.

The incident which occurred is subject to further investigation by CQC as to whether any further regulatory action should be taken. As a result, this inspection did not examine the circumstances of the incident.

Following the inspection, CQC has served four warning notices to St Petroc to focus their attention on making rapid and widespread improvements around safe care and treatment, consent to care, safeguarding, and the management of the service.

The service’s overall rating has dropped from good to inadequate as have the ratings for safe and well-led. The ratings for effective, caring and responsive were not reviewed in this inspection and remain rated as good.

The service has also been placed in special measures, which means it will be kept under close review by CQC to keep people safe and it will continue to monitor to check sufficient improvements are being made. If CQC doesn’t see rapid and widespread improvements, CQC may use its regulatory powers further.

Catherine Campbell, CQC deputy director of operations in the south, said:

“When we inspected St Petroc's Care Home, we found it did not have strong leadership. This was exposing people to a risk of abuse and harm because they didn’t ensure staff had the skills and training necessary to meet the needs of people living there.

"Residents told inspectors they saw staff bullying others in communal areas. Vulnerable people were relying on all staff members to act as their advocates, to help them live their best lives, and it is unacceptable the people they relied on were treating them this way.

“We also found staff had subjected people to restrictive practices by delivering personal care without consent. Staff involved in these incidents told us it had been in the person’s best interest but there was no documentation or guidance that supported this approach.

Inspectors found:

• Care wasn’t private or dignified, with inspectors observing staff members providing personal care in bathrooms with the door open. Inspectors immediately highlighted this to the registered manager and subsequently informed the service’s directors.

• Staff had no confidence that concerns would be investigated. Staff described how they had been punished and discriminated against by other staff and the registered manager.

• The home consisted of three distinct areas and at night only two staff were on duty to support the 23 people living in the service. This impacted on staff availability and response times while meeting these individual’s needs.

• Staff and people living in the service described incidents of conflict that had repeatedly occurred between the registered manager and the previous deputy manager in communal areas of the home.

• The service used cut up old towels, with frayed edges as flannels during personal care. The manager didn’t like this, but no action had been taken to improve the quality of flannels, prior to the inspection.

• Risk assessments and people’s care plans were not accurate or detailed enough to ensure safe and effective care.

• Staff training was not completed at a satisfactory level across the service.

• People didn’t feel involved in their care planning.

• People’s dignity was not always maintained.

The report will be published on CQC’s website in the next few days.